or this even!

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225985231872

And maybe it's not just home advantage...Australia sort of peaked in 2000 at their home games, and moreorless sustained that for Athens and Beijing.....

But GB has absolutely rocketed...

what this tells me is that Australia is at the bottom of a cycle...it's like one of their tanking AFL teams....but there's no draft picks in Olympic sports....

A question - why do Bronze and Silver stand either side of Gold? Why don't they have it like steps so Bronze stand on the left with the lowest step, then Silver up a bit and then Gold on the highest? Wouldn't that make more sense? Don't know why that just occurred to me but it's irritating me now.

this post belongs to the London 2012 Whingeing Thread. i reported this post to the moderator.

Where it will be ignored as it's neither whinging nor whining, simply querying.

I think I read somewhere that originally only the gold medal person was meant to be higher, and the silver and bronze were meant to be the same level either side of gold (which they seem to have gone back to now, I noticed the silver isn't slightly higher than the bronze these days like it used to). So I guess then it wouldn't make sense to have them like steps going up to gold?

Maybe it's camera angles for TV. They can get all the people in shot easier if Bronze and Silver are moreorless framing the Gold....

It's because the podium is designed to elevate the winner, silver is slightly lower & bronze lower again. Doesn't always show up on T.V as such. It's been a long time since I stood on one but I'm sure silver stands on the right of gold.
I may be wrong but can't be arsed to google

Its been the same since the 1930's, the IOC felt that the gold medal should stand above the others but silver and bronze should only be superseded by gold, not each other and its never changed.

I sound like I know this already don't I? Sounds impressive doesn't it? Well it isn't, it came up on Radio 5 live the other night.

Fair enough, merci buckets. You could have not told me you heard it, I would have been very impressed, now, well not so much.

How about if I told you I bathed in urine? Hmmm? How about then? Hmm?

Sorry, even Al is out of the window now, I've just been watching Tom Daley and David Beckham. Yes I'm fickle.

Tom Daley is young enough to be your grandson!

It also means that the gold medal winner is always at the centre of any photograph etc, and when they all get together for the close shot, the gold winner is in the centre, no need to mess around swapping places.

Ahem..... would you like to explain this?

http://memorabilia.london2012.com/iS...uctionId=19831